NIDA'S DRUG TESTS ARE A BROKEN RECORD

Your supposed research sounds like b*st. Trust me - if I can sense it,
so can many kids.

I know, for instance, the brain scan studies used by NIDA are bogus.
They mean little - they cherry-picked their subjects, and they turned
away people who used the drug hundreds of times but had normal scans.

The Dutch have found no ill effects in men using ecstasy. Norway has
declared it a soft drug. If this drug was dangerous - as you propose
it is - the effects would appear right now, not 10 or 20 years from
now. You cannot just begin destroying brain cells and see no effect
for 20 years. The same lies were told about LSD to my generation and
have not faded. It is always the same b*st from the idiots in our
culture: memory loss, brain damage, birth defects.

Do you not perceive that lying is counterproductive? Many of the kids
have already tuned you out. It would be far better to do longitudinal
studies on users of ecstasy to tease out the pharmacological effects
and the toxicology profile of this compound. Most likely, it is less
damaging than alcohol anyways, so the sky will not fall when we
actually collect the truth.

The sad part is that our government and NIDA researchers now have so
little credibility left, that they object to their own label being
placed on their anti-drug advertising. It is that bad, and yet,
hysterical witch hunters just can't help themselves. Now, wave after
wave will come of the "newest research" proving the deadly nature of
this compound. You guys do not have a clue about what is going on -
hence the word "linked" instead of "causes."

Too bad Dr. Koesters is not concerned that fear-mongering has
destroyed the credibility of folks like him; who make radical
declarations with little evidence in hand, besides politicized
science. This is your credibility in a frying pan, Dr. Koesters.

Journalism is definitely linked to shoddy reporting on drug policy
issues. I suspect a causal relationship, personally. Perhaps your
"journalist" should seek the opinions of MAPS - who has FDA approval
to conduct research on MDMA to be used in short term
psychotherapy.

Matthew Hulett

Brick, N.J.